The role of social networks on financial products subscription

: the case of Millennium bcp

Abstract

During a financial crisis, like the one we are facing today, financial institutions more than ever need to guarantee that they are able to keep their customer base, namely the most profitable customers, and acquire new customers, especially younger people with high potential like undergraduate and master’s students. Customer satisfaction and loyalty play an important role in this matter and that is one of the main concerns of banks in tough times. To acquire and retain new costumers among the youngsters, Millennium bcp created and launched a bundle of products specially designed for this segment. To reach and engage with this target, Millennium bcp invested in a Facebook page specially designed to communicate the new offer. The aim of this dissertation is to study the effect of social networks in the subscription of financial products. This paper studies the example of Millennium Go Facebook page, from the Bank Millennium bcp, which is a financial product page where informative and entertainment contents are inserted on a regular basis in order to keep its attractiveness and the relationship with the target public. Despite being quite hard to measure the impact of engagement with this channel, it was possible to reach some conclusions through market research. This example will help students and their instructor understand all the process of creating the Millennium Go bundle: from the first concept design to its development and marketing communication campaigns. Market research was done with a main objective: to perceive who has pressed “like” on the Facebook page; when they have decided to do that, if before or after a purchase; and the reason why they have become fans of a financial institution Facebook page. The different perceptions of this channel between people who have and have not a “like” on the Facebook page were also studied. At the end of the study, it was possible to perceive that this new channel is usually used to seek information about a product or to have access to special content about the brand. It was also possible to conclude that there is a significant difference in terms of attitudes and perceptions among users and non-users of Facebook.

Date of Award	13 Feb 2013
Original language	English
Awarding Institution	Universidade Católica Portuguesa
Supervisor	Pedro Celeste (Supervisor)